The 2014 World Cup starts now for Spain, says Del Bosque

By Stefan Coerts

The national team boss has stressed that the world champions will have to be focussed right from the start in order to book their ticket for the World Cup

Spain coach Vicente del Bosque has stressed that the Euro 2012 winners can not afford to start their qualification campaign for the 2014 World Cup slowly as he feels they have to be on top of their game right from the start.

The reigning world champions were grouped with France, Finland, Georgia and Belarus in Group I, and Del Bosque demands a top performance from the Roja in their opening game on Tuesday.

"The World Cup does not start in 2014, but now, here against Georgia in Tbilisi," Del Bosque told AS.

"To defend the title that Spain won in Johannesburg we need to first qualify for Brazil.

"The players know that we are starting a tough qualification phase, where we cannot afford to be complacent because a mistake could be a problem."

Tuesday's encounter in Tbilisi kicks off at 19:30CET. Spain will be in confident mood after the 5-0 demolition of Saudi Arabia on Friday.